Barnes & Noble Reducing Orders of New Trek Books?

[ronny]

Well, how do you sign an ebook?

- Byron

There's something called http://www.authorgraph.com/ which I used once just to see how it worked. I got a one page pdf that has the cover page of an e-book with what is supposed to be K.W. Jeter's signature on it.

Not exactly the same thing but my way of getting e-books signed is handing the author a Sharpie along with my Kindle. Works every time.

After the first author, Cherie Priest at the bottom, signed it I kept smudging the signature no matter how I tried to hold the Kindle when reading so I just got a cover for it to protect the back more than the screen. I don't actually read much from the Kindle itself any more since I got my Android phone so it's pretty much an autograph collector at this point.

The authors who have signed it are:
John Scalzi
Jay Lake
K.W. Jeter
Charles Stross
Robert J. Sawyer
Catherynne M. Valente
Cherie Priest
Rudy Rucker
Cory Doctorow
Mary Robinette Kowall

 

[JD]

That's an original way to do it, and you've got a pretty impressive collection there.

 

[BritishSeaPower]

This is certainly odd, as it doesn't really match the experience I have with my local B&N. I picked up the last two TOS novels fairly easily. Trek commands about 1 and a half shelves at my store, with about 5 shelves for Star Wars. Allegiance in Exile was prominently displayed on the new SciFi shelf today when I went in today to get the new RA Salvatore book, whereas Devil's Bargain was "hidden" in amongst the older Trek releases. I ended up getting both books the Friday before they were released. There were probably about 8 or 9 copies of Allegiance when I bought it. I think there were maybe 6 of Devil in February. Today, there were 3 copies of Allegiance (one of which was mixed in with the Star Wars books) and two copies of Devil.

The selection of Trek books is a bit odd, though. It feels more like "What wouldn't sell" then "Popular." No destiny books, after about 6 months most of the "recent" books are gone. Currently Death in Winter, the first two Titan books, a host of Troublesome Minds and the odd book from the last four months populate the shelves. DiW is the oldest book on the Shelf for Trek, and it does in fact look it. Though, I did find the DS9-R Mirror Universe trilogy there last year.

There's also a Trek Lit standee right at the front of the store with the latest Typhon Pact novels. So either this store didn't get the memo about the distributor tiff or they don't care. There is another B&N not too far from me, but they're smaller (one floor vs. 2) so their SciFi selection is meager to begin with, with Star Wars having two shelves and Trek sharing a shelf with Torchwood and Doctor Who.

Granted the experience of one store doesn't equate to general trends, but I find this most perplexing. And to deflect the e-book question, I really only get Trek-back catalog books for my Kindle, the newer releases tend to be much easier to get a hold of.

(On an even odder note, the B&N at Lincoln Center in NYC had a full shelf of the BBC's Doctor Who novels in 2004-2005 which disappeared once the new series started and they didn't carry the novels until late in Tennant's run!)

 

[Therin of Andor]

Here's the scene at "Forbidden Planet", London, yesterday.


Star Trek display at Forbidden Planet, London by Therin of Andor, on Flickr

There was also a range of IDW comics and trades in the comics section.

 

[JD]

Wow, I haven't seen that many Trek books in one place in a very long time.

 

[DimesDan]

Wow, I haven't seen that many Trek books in one place in a very long time.

As I said in the latest acquisition thread where Ian also posted that photo until some time last year, they had double, if not more that amount of Trek books.

When I was there in January, I needed to ask where the Trek books were because they had scaled down so much and moved them.

 

[Garrovick]

That's a pretty impressive display, Therin - I presume all of those are new copies, or are some of them used? I can see several volumes of the "A Time to..." series there, which I haven't seen for sale outside of a used book shop for years - also, I can't really tell for sure with my eyesight, but it almost looks like there are some of the numbered TNG books on the lowest shelf on the left-hand side. I could be wrong about that, though.... If these are all new copies, that's awesome - I haven't seen anything older than Death in Winter for sale new around here in a long time.

 

[Therin of Andor]

That's a pretty impressive display, Therin - I presume all of those are new copies, or are some of them used?

Everything is new, including some rather early Titan Books UK editions of TNG and TOS numbered Pocket Books, before Titan dropped the license and the US editions were imported. On a different shelf, more early Titan Books UK editions had been reduced for clearance.

Beside me, not in shot, was a pile of the boxes of the newish, interactive, "Federation: The First 150 Years" book. In a different section, IDW trade omnibuses were well represented.

 

[tomswift2002]

Whenever I see a Titan Star Trek novel pop up in used bookstores here in Ontario, which isn't that often (since Titan never had the Canadian license for the books, so these at books that people imported into Canada ), it always seems to be TNG #21 "Chains of Command".

 

[Sxottlan]

Getting ready for the new wave of attempts to get the next book!

[/working out]

 

[Csalem]

When I first visited FP in London in 2009 they did have a lot more Trek books than now. And a lot of the early Titan books were there back then too. But having said that, the London store does have a lot more Trek books than the Dublin one.

 

[Therin of Andor]

When I first visited FP in London in 2009 they did have a lot more Trek books than now. And a lot of the early Titan books were there back then too.

Well, here's the dilemma. If people expect a shop to keep as-new, out-of-print books in plentiful supply, they have to realise that eventually, the stock has to dwindle.

So a shop having lots of old titles gathering dust is not really a healthy sign, unless its a second hand shop; certainly, old Bantam titles used to rotate in and out quickly so Book Exchanges used to love them!

A shop that has ordered in shelf copies of every ST book in print: that's a bit healthier! But generally a shop will only do this for an "event". We had a Dymocks in Sydney majorly revamp their science fiction & media section in the early 90s and they went all-out getting in everything they could that was available. I think it coincided with "Star Trek: First Contact" in the cinemas. Made a very impressive ST display, but lots of books got discounted out a few years later.

I was pleased to see that the FP London store had numerous copies of all the new stuff. Not seeing many copies of "The Unauthorized History" Greenberger book outside of Australia. I was in the USA and wanted to show it to some penpals, but we never saw shelf copies. Have seen one in London.

Ah well, as of yesterday, I'm in Paris! Will keep you posted.

Oh, and a new acquisition, of particular interest to Mark Martinez:
I found a recent issue of "Bleeding Cool" magazine (#3, March 2013, Avatar Press, pp 58-61), a title I've not seen before, with a cover and Rick Verbanas article dedicated to the IDW comics! Kirk on the cover, from "Countdown to Darkness" #1.

 

[Sxottlan]

Looks like the S&S and B&N dispute is over.

 

[Reanok]

Thanks for posting this news update about them finally resolving their issues about their books .Now maybe we can finally have more Star trek books on their bookshelves at my Local barnes &Noble again.

 

[E-DUB]

It's called "supply and demand" for a reason. If you don't see the Trek book and either buy something else or just leave, they don't see the demand. You gotta tell them that they've lost a sale. Maybe they won't give a rat's furry, but if you don't ask, they won't know.

 

[ATimson]

It's called "supply and demand" for a reason. If you don't see the Trek book and either buy something else or just leave, they don't see the demand. You gotta tell them that they've lost a sale. Maybe they won't give a rat's furry, but if you don't ask, they won't know.

Letting the store sales staff know doesn't do anything - they're not responsible for the ordering. That's the chain's buyers' job.

 

[Christopher]

^But you can request that the staff special-order a copy of a book for you, and that will let folks higher up the line know that there's demand for that book (if enough people do it).

 

[Therin of Andor]

Letting the store sales staff know doesn't do anything - they're not responsible for the ordering. That's the chain's buyers' job.

If the store's sales staff aren't keeping a tally of requests they can't fill they are not doing their job.

 

[ATimson]

Letting the store sales staff know doesn't do anything - they're not responsible for the ordering. That's the chain's buyers' job.

If the store's sales staff aren't keeping a tally of requests they can't fill they are not doing their job.

They can tally all they want, but that doesn't get the information to someone at corporate who can do anything with it.

 

[Christopher]

^What do you mean? Sales information is sales information. If a book is special-ordered and purchased, then that's a sale, and it goes on record.